A searing debut novel from the award-winning author of You Know When the Men are Gone, about jealousy, the unpredictable path of friendship, and the secrets kept in marriage, all set within the U.S. expat community of the Middle East during the rise of the Arab Spring.Both Cassie Hugo and Margaret Brickshaw dutifully followed their soldier husbands to the U.S. embassy in Jordan, but that’s about … Jordan, but that’s about all the women have in common. After two years, Cassie’s become an expert on the rules, but newly arrived Margaret sees only her chance to explore. So when a fender-bender sends Margaret to the local police station, Cassie reluctantly agrees to watch Margaret’s toddler son. But as the hours pass, Cassie’s boredom and frustration turn to fear: Why isn’t Margaret answering her phone, and why is it taking so long to sort out a routine accident? Snooping around Margaret’s apartment, Cassie begins to question not only her friend’s whereabouts but also her own role in Margaret’s disappearance.
With achingly honest prose and riveting characters, The Confusion of Languages plunges readers into a shattering collision between two women and two worlds, affirming Siobhan Fallon as a powerful voice in American fiction and a storyteller not to be missed.
“A gripping, cleverly plotted novel with surprising bite.”—Phil Klay
“Mesmerizing and devastating…two military wives must explore a modern-day, cultural labyrinth in this insatiable read.”—Sarah McCoy
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This is the story of two “embassy wives” in Amman, Jordan. Cassie has been desperately longing for a baby; Margaret has a toddler. We see the development and dissolution of the women’s friendship from alternating first-person points of view as Cassie tells her side of the story and reads an account of events from Margaret’s journal. The devastating events that led to her reading her friend’s journal unfold with a sick inevitability. The reader can see long before the characters that things will not turn out well, and yet must keep turning pages to find out exactly how they go off the rails.
Fallon does a wonderful job of evoking the Middle East (she lived in Jordan herself), the nuances of living in a diplomatic compound, and the feel of an ancient city as she reveals the complicated relationship between the American military and local embassy personnel.
Despite its devastating events, the novel holds out hope that kindness and the good we bring to the world can touch everyone, even those who may not understand that they need it, and can reach forward into an uncertain future.
Moments after I finished reading my signed copy of Siobhan Fallon’s debut novel, The Confusion of Languages, I stayed huddled in my reading chair and sobbed for several minutes. Before I could get up and grab a tissue, my two big dogs trotted into the room and nosed toward me with concern on their faces. With an ache in my throat that came out of nowhere, I cooed and coddled them with lots of head pats as I tried to reassure them that I was okay, just emotional after reading the final pages of Siobhan’s novel. As they both vied for my attention and placed their chins on my lap, I buried my face in their fur and let them absorb my tears. And yes, grief. Grief for an ending I didn’t see coming.
Once I composed myself, I reached for a tissue and sent a text to my baby sister, Jo Rivera, who read the book weeks ago after checking it out from the Niceville Public Library. Over the next thirty minutes, we discussed in detail the two main characters, Cassie and Margaret, two military spouses whose lives intersect in a foreign land where Middle Eastern culture dictates that women cover up and are wary of interacting with the opposite sex. Even the wives of military service members assigned to the embassy are advised to wear conservative clothing that doesn’t reveal too much or is seen as suggestive by the locals.
The story alternates between the two women: the reserved and proper Cassie who’s learned to safely navigate life in a foreign land with its own set of customs and rules, and the carefree and rule-breaking blue-eyed Margaret, with her long blonde hair and baby son, Mather, who has a penchant for sticking inedible objects in his mouth. Cassie, childless but aching for a baby, has been married to Dan for nine years. Cassie and Dan Hugo have lived in Jordan two years when they “sponsor” or host another military family, Margaret and Crick Brickshaw, who are new to the area.
At first glance, Margaret appears to have everything Cassie wants: an ultra slim figure, a baby, and a bigger apartment. And Cassie can’t help but notice Margaret’s attractive husband, Crick, who appears confident and a tad flirtatious at times. But things are not always as they seem, and Cassie, along with the reader, learns things about Margaret one day when Cassie is left alone with Mather in Margaret’s apartment. Margaret has supposedly left to go pay a minor traffic fine when Cassie discovers her friend’s journal while babysitting Mather.
As a novelist myself, I marveled at Siobhan’s use of journal entries to move the story forward and give us a true sense of place while providing important backstory regarding Margaret and her husband Crick. Each time Cassie picked up her friend’s journal and began to read, I felt like I was snooping, prying into private pages filled with joys and sorrows, gossip and secrets. And later, details that caused me to want to lash out at Cassie! But I kept reading, and my sense of betrayal turned to fear.
There are so many good lines in this book. On page 155 in the hardback edition, I stopped and wrote this line down to reflect on later: “Cats fighting or mating, desire and hatred sounding the same.”
After my sister and I discussed the novel at length, I asked Jo to sum up what Siobhan Fallon’s writing means to her since Jo’s read both of Siobhan’s books, starting with the critically acclaimed You Know When The Men Are Gone (Amy Einhorn Books, G.P.Putnam’s Sons, 2011). In Jo’s words:
“Unless you are a military member or a military spouse, you will not truly understand the many facets of the women and men who make up our Armed Forces. However, Siobhan Fallon writes from experience and has a way with storytelling that is compelling and draws one into the lives and daily challenges of our military world. She weaves the characters like a beautiful tapestry filled with happiness, joy, pain, sorrow, love, hate, forgiveness, and an overwhelming sense of resilience. Her books touch my life in a very meaningful way because I am a military spouse. There is a sense of solidarity even though each of her characters bring their own color of thread to the tapestry.” ––Jo Rivera, Military Spouse and avid reader
Cassie and Margaret are two very different women who are thrown into a friendship through their military husbands who have been stationed in Amman Jordan with the U.S. Embassy.
Cassie and her husband Dave Welcome the new couple, Margaret, Crick and baby Mather, to the country and show them the ins and outs of the area and Cassie tells Margaret about the proper etiquette for women to follow in the country and about the rules of the U.S. Embassy.
Cassie has always been a rule follower, but Margaret sees this experience as a way to express herself: she wants to get to know the country and its people regardless of the consequences.
Tension and resentments between the two women erupts as the time goes on, but they are also thankful for the friendship of another woman.
They are both women with too much time on their hands, and different ways of wanting to use it. With both of their husbands away quite often they are left to their own devices, and they each make critical choices that are not always in their favor.
Cassie is too rigid at times to enjoy her own life and Margaret often too naive to be saved from her own actions.
This book has wonderful character development, we are drawn into their lives through the authors prose. It is a story, that lets one feel and experience, what it might be like to live in this area as a person that is not completely familiar with its ways.
There is a lot that goes on in this story, but that is for you to find out. It is a story about finding oneself, about marriages, motherhood, relationships and the want for something not yet had.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam